Playdough

Playdough

My girls love to play with playdough. However, the commercial ones are expensive, stick everywhere and have a funny smell. Worst of all, they don't last long since the kids mix everything up and sometimes leave them out too long, causing them to dry up.

Since the ingredients for playdough are all things I have at home, I decided to make my own playdough instead. Not only is it cheaper, I can make all kinds of different colours and even add fragrance using essential oils. For relaxing play before bedtime, try lavender and chamomile essential oils. For energising play, try peppermint oil. You can leave the dough unfragranced, but there may be a mild vegetable oil smell, depending on what oil you use.

Today instead of food colouring, I use fine glitter and micas to colour the dough. The colourings I use are makeup grade, and safe for eyes, lips, nails, etc. You can't see it from the picture, but the dough is slightly metallic and glittery.

The following recipe has been adapted for the themomix, but you can do it by hand just as easily. Just mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then bour in the boiling water, stir to form a loose dough, then knead by hand till smooth. The dough will keep well for several days and remain soft if you keep it in an airtight container. The cream of tartar and salt may seem like alot, but don't reduce the amount as these will help prevent mould from growing.

Playdough

INGREDIENTS

220g plain flour
50g cream of tartar
20g cooking oil
220g salt
500ml water
food colouring
few drop of essential oil (optional)

METHOD

1. Pour salt and water into the TM bowl, heat 5 mins at 100°C, speed stir.
2. Once the water boils, add the rest of the ingredients (except the colouring and essential oil) into the water and mix 1-2 mins on speed 4-5 until a dough forms.
3. Seperate into smaller portions and knead in colouring and essential oil until you get your desired colour and level of fragrance.

 

Homemade Chicken Stock Powder

I first read about making chicken stock powder from the Thermomix forum. There were many raves about Tenina's Chicken stock powder recipe in the For Food's Sake recipe book. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get hold of Thermomix recipe books in Singapore and I couldn't find the recipe for the stock powder anywhere. Hence, I decided to just experiment on my own with whatever information I could gather online, and came up with my own version of a stock powder.

I actually used the chicken carcass and jin hua ham left over from a liquid chicken stock together with some left over raw chicken pieces in the freezer. I often have meat left over from soups that nobody wants to eat as the meat has given all it's flavour to the soup and tends to be somewhat tough and flavourless. I think this would be a great way to make use of the leftover meat and minimise wastage.

The resulting powder seems like a good replacement for the usual stock cube and is completely made from natural ingredients, so I can use it in my cooking without worrying about feeding my kids MSG and other additives. I used some ingredients commonly used in Asian stocks/soups to make the stock powder more suited to Asian cooking though I'm sure you could use whatever ingredients you like create your own version of stock powder, just dehydrate and blend!

I don't have a precise recipe for this...but this is what I did...

1. Dehydrate ingredients in an oven until dry. For vegetables: 150°C for first 5-10 minutes, then about 100°C until dry. For meat: 230°Cfor 15-20 minutes till brown then 150°C until dry. In between I will remove any dry bits and also remove the meat from the bone and shred up into small pieces so it can dry faster. Be patient...once the items seem almost dry, you can switch off the oven and let the residual heat continue to dry the items out further.
2. Place everything in the thermomix and blend on speed 10 until you have a fine powder.

This is what I added into my stock powder:

• Chicken (about 1/2 a chicken)
• Jin Hua Ham (1 slice)
• Spring onions (about 1 small bunch)
• Onions (about 2 medium)
• Garlic (2-3 cloves)
• Dried Shitake mushrooms (2-3)
• Dried Scallops (2-3 medium/large)
• Salt (about 1 tsp)

It smells fantastic! When I add it into soups I don't really taste the stock powder or the individual ingredients in it, but it does seem to give the soup some depth and enhances the flavour.

Thai Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Ma Muang)

Thai Mango Sticky Rice

On my recent trip to Thailand, I bought back some Thai Sweet Rice. It is actually glutinous rice, but it is less sticky than our local version and holds its shape even after cooking. I've tried making this dessert before, but used our local glutinous rice by mistake and the result was a horrible soggy mess.

Mangoes are in season and I managed to buy some thai honey mangoes at NTUC last week. After keeping them for a few days, they finally ripened over the weekend and I decided to try making Khao Niao Ma Muang again. It turned out perfect!

I made some adapations to the original recipe though. Firstly, I quardupled the recipe, as I figured with all the effort I may as well make more. The 2 cups of rice was just nice for 5 adults. I followed the quantity in the original recipe and ended up with too much coconut milk left over. So the recipe below reflects the reduced amount.

 

Thai Mango Sticky Rice

adapted from here

INGREDIENTS

For the Rice

2 cups raw sticky rice

1 cup coconut milk 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar

2 ripe thai honey mango

For the Sauce

1/4 cup coconut milk

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon tapioca flour/ rice flour/ corn flour

 

METHOD

1. Soak the sticky rice for at least an hour before steaming. I soaked it before bed and steamed the next morning.
2. Line the varoma tray with a cheese cloth. Drain the rice and spread it on the cheese cloth in an even layer.
3. Steam for 20-25 minutes on varoma temperature,speed 1.
4. While steaming, prepare the sauce for the rice. Add the 1 cup of coconut milk to a saucepan along with the 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar & 1/2 teaspoon salt, and stir over low heat until dissolved. Set aside.
5. Prepare the topping sauce as well. In another small saucepan, add the 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt, and stir over low heat until dissolved. Mix the flour with a little bit of water in a small bowl until a paste, then add as well. Mixing the starch beforehand will prevent any lumps from forming in the sauce. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat.
6. When the rice is finished, spread out in a shallow bowl and cover with the thin sauce. Stir well and keep adding more until you reach saturation point. It should be wet but not drowning in sauce. You will see very small puddles of coconut milk. Different brands of rice may absorb different amounts, so do adjust accordingly. Stir well and cover with a towel. Let the rice absorb the coconut milk for 10-15 minutes.
7. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin off the mango and slice off the flesh on each side of the seed.
8. Scoop a small amount of sticky rice onto a plate and arrange the mango on top or to the side. Garnish with the thick coconut milk sauce.

Okara Green Tea Bread

I finally got a chance to use the okara left over from my soyabean milk the other day. I added it into the tangzhong bread recipe I have been using and made a swirly loaf. The result was a soft, light and fluffy loaf that looked great. I couldn't see or taste the okara at all, but it helps add some fibre. I also ran out of bread flour, so I had to substitute part of the flour with plain flour.

Green Tea Okara Bread

INGREDIENTS

100g bread flour
170g plain flour
45g castor sugar
pinch of salt
5g non-dairy creamer powder or milk powder
5g dried yeast
45g egg (1 small egg)
30g heavy cream
25g milk
90g tangzhong
15g okara, lightly toasted in oven
green tea powder (adjust amount to desired colour and taste)
25g salted butter

METHOD

1. Measure all ingredients except the butter into the TM bowl (flour and yeast should be last). Milk, cream and egg can be cold as the kneading will warm the ingredients.
2. Mix on speed 4 for a few seconds to combine then set to knead for 8 minutes.
3. Add in the butter (cold) and knead a further 2 minutes until butter is incorporated and dough is smooth and elastic.
4. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Mix in a small amount of green tea powder into one of the portions and knead until the green tea powder is evenly incorporated. Shape the 2 portions of dough into balls and place into seperate greased bowls. Cover with a tea towel and leave for 30-40 minutes till doubled in size.
5. Turn out the plain dough onto a baking mat, punch down the dough, then roll out into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Do the same for the green dough, ensuring th size is about the same.
6. Place the green dough onto the plain dough, and roll up the shorter end like a swiss roll. Tuck in the two ends and place into a greased loaf tin.
7. Allow the dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
8. Brush with milk or beaten egg before baking at 180°C 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.